Chris Patten had to wipe away the tears as the Last Post sounded and the Union Jack was lowered to signal the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

The last British governor of Hong Kong admits that it was a “wrench” to leave the city that he and his family loved and had made their home for five years. But, as he sailed away with the Prince of Wales aboard the royal yacht he believed that the “one country, two systems” principle that had been enshrined in the Joint Declaration, an international treaty logged at the UN, would be enough to protect Hong Kong’s capitalist economy and its way of life.